


Hardships and hunters

by yogini



Series: Living with a dragon [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dragon Stiles Stilinski, Peter Hale & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Scott McCall & Stiles Stilinski Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2015-11-06
Packaged: 2018-04-30 08:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5157356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yogini/pseuds/yogini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott’s breathing was getting raspier and more strained by the second and Stiles turned his backpack upside down, frantically raffling through its contents to find the inhaler.<br/>“Help, Stiles” Scott wheezed, faintly reaching out as Stiles finally found the medication and helped his friend breathe it in. A few tense seconds passed but Scott showed no signs of getting better.<br/>“Take another dose” Stiles urged him. “Take more, it’s not enough.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hardships and hunters

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Teen Wolf or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

Scott’s breathing was getting raspier and more strained by the second and Stiles turned his backpack upside down, frantically raffling through its contents to find the inhaler.

“Help, Stiles” Scott wheezed, faintly reaching out as Stiles finally found the medication and helped his friend breathe it in. A few tense seconds passed but Scott showed no signs of getting better.

“Take another dose” Stiles urged him. “Take more, it’s not enough.” Scott tried but couldn’t breathe in deeply enough. Stiles hands shook as he called for an ambulance and tried to calm his best friend at the same time. Every second before he heard the sirens felt like an eternity.

 

Later that afternoon, after he’d finally been kicked out of the hospital by Melissa so that Scott could get some sleep, he ended up at the Hale house. His dad was working an evening shift and Stiles didn’t feel like being alone with his thoughts would be a good idea. Even if he didn’t really need a babysitter anymore he still liked to hang out with Peter, and if he played his cards right, he might even get dinner out of it.

“Why the long face?” Peter asked as he let the teenager in, rubbing his hand over his neck in a gesture that Stiles previously always had thought to be strictly comforting but that he now knew also was for scent marking purposes. Since Stiles’ had proved to be a dragon the Hales didn’t see the purpose of keeping him in the dark about them being werewolves and as soon as Stiles was back in Beacon Hills after gaining control over his shift Peter had told him everything. Apart from the occasional dog jokes, he hadn’t regretted that decision and Stiles had eagerly learnt as much as he could about werewolves.

“Scott had another asthma attack today” Stiles said, climbing onto the kitchen counter. He kicked his legs back and forth and tried to steal a piece of the bell pepper that Peter was chopping into neat cubes. “He’s still in hospital.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Peter asked carefully. Just because he couldn’t quite stand the beaming ray of sunshine and naiveté that was Scott “Goody Two Shoes” McCall didn’t mean that he actually wanted the kid to choke to death. Besides, Stiles had threatened to demote him from the position of the coolest babysitter ever if he was mean to Scott and that title _did_ mean a lot to him.

“Yeah, it’s just…” Stiles sniffled a little, though he’d deny it to his dying days if anyone asked. “They kept saying that he’d grow out of it and now it’s only getting worse. The inhaler’s not working and he has to get special meds at the hospital. He’s missing a lot of school and Melissa’s worried sick and…” He snatched another piece of vegetable from the chopping board, staring at it morosely before popping it into his mouth. ”What if next time I’m not there to call an ambulance? What if he’s all alone?” Peter let his mind wander while he finished dinner, considered different options and strategies. The Hale pack was wealthy enough, thanks to good investments, and they’d be able to afford to send the boy to an asthma specialist, but according to Stiles it seemed like efforts like that had already been made without conclusive results. He’d have to speak to Talia, and the boy’s mother, about possibly offering to turn him. The question was if they were willing to take that risk.

 

In the end it wasn’t about whether or not Scott and Melissa would be willing to take the risk. After a feral alpha erred into Hale territory and Scott happened to cross its path one unfortunate evening the hypothetical discussions about perhaps offering the bite to the teenager turned into planning for werewolf boot camp to help Scott get through school without fur and fangs visible. Melissa was upset at first but she couldn’t deny that it was a relief not to have to worry about her son’s asthma anymore and Scott was thrilled about finally being able to actually play lacrosse instead of just warming the bench. Things changed for Stiles as well. With his best friend now sitting in the same supernatural boat as himself, he could finally tell Scott all about why he had such a hard time resisting anything shiny or glittery. To say that Scott was shocked by the fact that his best friend was a dragon was an understatement, but it also explained a lot of things, and since getting turned into a supernatural creature himself had somewhat broadened Scott’s concept of what was ‘normal’, he simply stated that Stiles would always be his best friend, non-human or not, as long as he didn’t steal any of Scott’s things.

 

All in all most things were going well in Beacon Hills, and that was of course the reason that the universe must’ve felt compelled to counteract that, to maintain the balance or something.

“Are they after you or me?” Scott yelled in panic as they leaped and weaved their way around the trees of the forest, trying to evade the hunters that had fanned out wide behind them, covering many their possible escape routes.

“I don’t know, just run!” Stiles answered, equally panicked. His dad had always warned him about hunters, even more so after the discussion they’d had about his mother, and from Peter he’d learned the true story of the Hale fire, that was very unlike the official version. But it still felt surreal to be running from them, to fight for his life like an animal, and he couldn’t shake off the feeling that something terrible was about to happen. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself harder. Scott might be new to werewolf life but he’d quickly learnt to benefit from his increased stamina and Stiles wasn't about to become the weak link by slowing them both down. At last they managed to put a bit of distance between themselves and the hunters and hide behind a rock formation, pressed closely together.  

“You should look at this from the bright side” Stiles whispered, still out of breath. “Last month you couldn’t have run like that without having an asthma attack.”

“Last month I wasn’t a werewolf” Scott answered, equally panting. “I didn’t need to run then!” And well, it wasn’t as if Stiles could argue with that assessment. Besides, he was too out of breath to answer anyway. A few tense seconds passed and the forest was eerily quiet. Slowly the two teenagers started to look around, considering their next move.

“Should I howl or something?” Scott whispered. “Warn the Hales?”

“Are you crazy?” Stiles half-shouted and Scott clapped a hand over his mouth. “If you howl they’ll know where we are!”

“I’ve ever done this before!” Scott pointed out, half-panicked.

“Me neither!” Stiles huffed. “Come on, wolf-boy, use those pointy ears of yours. Is someone coming?” Scott stilled for a moment, concentrating.

“Yes” he then all but whimpered, staring at a point above Stiles’ shoulder.

“Well then, come on, let’s get out of here” Stiles whispered frantically, pushing at his friend who remained frozen where he sat.

“Too late.” Scott looked sick to his stomach, still staring behind Stiles, and Stiles turned around slowly, only to stare right into a pair of icy eyes and the barrel of a gun. Stiles opened his mouth to say something, plead for his life, _anything_ , but before he could utter a word the man’s radio crackled to life.

“Argent, report status.”

“They’re not here” the hunter responded, still not taking his eyes off the two petrified teenagers. “Search closer to the stream.”

“Copy that. Move west everyone.” The hunter lowered his gun, gestured for them to get up and Stiles explosively let out the breath that he’d been holding.

“I, uh…”

“Go, get out of the forest” the hunter interrupted harshly. “You don’t have much time.” He turned to leave. “Give my regards to Peter Hale” he added over his shoulder.

**Author's Note:**

> Just in case anyone's interested in how old I imagine Stiles to be in the different stories, since there's obviously some hopping and skipping in regards to time...
> 
> Sparkle and shine ~ 6
> 
> Lost and found ~ 8
> 
> Shifts and changes ~ 12
> 
> Trinkets and troubles ~ 15
> 
> Hardships and hunters ~ 16


End file.
